Lisa French, who was 90 years old, is the main authority on Mycenae ceramics. She was the first archaeologist to systematically study the terracotta warriors and human statues in the culture — she called them “dolls” — and she was also the first female principal of the British School of Athens (1989-94).
Mycenae is located in the Argolid region in the east of the Peloponnese, 120 kilometers southwest of Athens. Main archaeological site In the late Bronze Age, the Greek mainland now has UNESCO World Heritage status.The ancient Greek legend is the hometown of Agamemnon, who led the Greeks to war with Troy; this is the place in 1876 Heinrich Schliemann Put the shovel on the ground first.
He went on to claim in a telegram to the Greek King George that he had discovered the tombs referred to in tradition recorded by the geographer Pausanias in the second century AD. These tombs belonged to Agamemnon and his companions. grave. In Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, Mycenae is described as well-built and rich in gold.This Mycenae civilization Named after this ancient site, with its prominent walled castle and majestic honeycomb tombs, it flourished from 1650 BC to 1100 BC.
Lisa’s extensive involvement in Mycenae began in 1939, when she and her mother Helen (Pence) went there with her father Alan Wace when she was 8 years old. His first The first excavation was in 1920-23. After the visit in 1939, he returned from 1950 until his death in 1957. Since 1950, Lisa participated in almost every excavation and research season, and continued to cooperate with Lord William Taylor on excavations after her father died. From 1959 to 1969, she worked at the Archaeological Society of Athens. For many years thereafter, she returned to study the site and its findings.
She married in 1960 David FranceHe became the director of the British Archaeological Institute in Ankara in 1968; soon, her two young daughters accompanied her every season in Mycenae.
Unique and distinctive stylized handmade products made by Lisa Little clay figurineShe completed her doctoral thesis at University College London (1961), and 10 years later published an article in the Yearbook of the British School of Athens, which included a catalog of examples from about 116 sites. Of these, most of the human species are females with an average height of about 10 cm (4 inches). The types discussed are similar to the three letters of the Greek alphabet and are sorted by date, which indicates that they are from 14 to 14 BC Developed between the 12th century.
In addition to her work on figurines, Lisa also adopted a systematic method to classify the pottery found in Mycenae. She used this method to help her determine the background of the discovery of the figurines, and to be relatively general. The dating provides a framework. In articles from the 1960s, she identified and detailed the various sub-stages of pottery from the 14th century BC to the early 12th century by examining relevant pottery groups or pottery fragments from the clearly defined environment of Mycenae.
These studies allowed her to inject empirical details into the rough and selective pottery reports from Mycenae and other unearthed sites so far, or Arne Furumark’s 1940 analysis of Mycenae pottery, which was basically based on style and inconsistency. The practical method of over-analysis until then was revered as the Bible of Mycenae pottery. They made Lisa a recognized “master” of Mycenae ceramics. Over the years, she has guided countless archaeology students to explore their mysteries.
Lisa was born in London and her name was Elizabeth, where her father was the deputy curator of the textile department of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her mother is a classicist who specializes in Roman history and comes from the United States. After Lisa’s first summer in Mycenae, World War II broke out and the mother and daughter were forced to go there.
After finally returning to England, she transferred from Cheltenham Women’s College to Newnham College in Cambridge, where she received a degree in classical literature in 1952. When teaching this subject in a school in London, she received a doctorate.
From the early 1970s to the 1980s, Lisa helped and encouraged Taylor to prepare the results of their excavations on the southwest side of Mycenae Castle for publication. These include the so-called cult centers and their “temples.” In 1981, she, Taylor and Kenneth Wardle began a carefully crafted series of Mycenae publications, initially supplementing the printed text with microfilm images on CD-Rom, and continuing to produce DVDs in subsequent installments. In 2003, she published the Mycenae Archaeological Atlas with Spyridon Iakovides, which surveyed all the remains of the wider area around the castle; the following year, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens.
After Lisa divorced in 1976, she and her daughters moved to Manchester, where she served as the guardian of the Ashbourne dormitory at the University of Manchester. She lectures at universities, publishes papers at international conferences, and continues to research Mycenae materials. She organized a very successful conference in Manchester in 1986 to discuss some of the issues currently being studied by Greek Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeologists, and thus published the book “Problems of Greek Prehistory”.
Lisa moved to Athens in 1989 as the principal of a British school. She has seen many practical modernizations, and she is particularly proud of it. She introduced the widespread use of computers, organized the digitization of library catalogs, developed a watering system for school gardens, and brought systematic order to its collections.
Her academic work has continued in Cambridge since 1994. In 2013, she donated Mycenae Archives, Contains all records of British excavations in Mycenae, to the classical teachers of Cambridge University.
Lisa can usually be described as lively and sometimes even a bit fierce. Considering the struggle she faces in a predominantly male world, while fulfilling what she believes is the responsibility of expanding her father’s work legacy, it’s not surprising.
However, under this sometimes intimidating appearance, there is a heart of gold hidden, and it is always fun to be with her. Her last year was a sad year, losing her young daughter Catherine, but she was still smart and determined.
Her other daughter Ann and grandsons Olivia and Will survived.
